Getting Started With Brettspielwelt: Part 2

One thing you'll notice if you spend some time in the BSW manager is there are a few games that launch all the time and a lot of games that rarely ever start up. If you want to play Dominion, Tichu, or San Juan you'll find an open game up almost all the time. For some of the longer or more complicated game you're going to be waiting around a while if you're just joining from the "players needed" section of the manager. You also have little to no control over the game options this way, so if you really wanted to play a game of Puerto Rico with the expansion buildings you're probably going to be out of luck waiting for someone else to start it up.

There are two solutions to this problem and both are solved the exact same way. Solution one is to just find an empty room and start your own game. Solution two is to find a room with a game you like in progress, go to the room and watch the game and ask to get in on the next game should one happen.

The screenshot below indicates where you need to click to get where you're going here. It's a little small, but you're looking for the phrase 'Alle Spiele'. Click that phrase and the menu will expand and show every game in this manager. (Many other games are in the archive manager, found by clicking the lobby button up at the top.)

Find the game you want in the big list (you may need to scroll a bit) and click on it. This will populate the manager with every table for that game in the world. The tables and colours here are the same as those in the previous post, with one new background: A game with a blue background is a game in progress. The screenshot below shows all the San Juan tables. Second from the top is a game in progress, every other table is one where you can start up your own game.

Assuming you're starting your own game, when you get in the following window will pop up. (You can click and drag the floating window and pull it outside the main BSW window to make it a floating window like I have here.) Most of this is pretty straightforward (click join to join, click an option to toggle it on or off) but there are a couple interesting parts.

The invisible option prevents the game from showing in the manager. You can use this if you're feeling antisocial and just want to play with people who are already in the room. Chances are you don't want to do this.

At the bottom is an edit box, you can type a message in here. When you click the OK button the system will broadcast your message to everyone who cares about the game you're in. It also makes the message appear in the manager.

So, basically, just go to an empty room, join the game, set a brief message, and hit ok. You should have opponents in a reasonable amount of time if there's any interest in the game you chose.

Next time I'll go into more details about what I meant when I said 'everyone who cares about the game'. (Preview: It uses the Spielpartner button!)